Thursday, October 12, 2006

Question from Samantha - Currency

Can anyone tell me what the unit of currency was for the tudor period?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The same as it is today, almost. The pound was in use in the 16th century, but its value was many times higher than it is today. The pound was divided into shillings and pence much like it is today, but the ratio was different. Rather than 100 pence (or five shillings) to the pound as it is now, there were (I think ... Liam will know for sure) 120 pence or six shillings to the pound. But there were also many coin denominations that do not exist today: farthings and groats, for example, both fractions of a pence. But the basic monetary unit as still pound/shilling/pence.

Anonymous said...

I think it was 12d (pence) to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound and 240d to a pound.

There were loads of differnt coins though - the 'royal', worth about 10s, the 'double royal' worth 20s, the 'half laurel' worth 10s, the 'angel' worth 10s, as well as gold and silver 'crowns' worth 5s. There were also half angels, half crowns and silver shillings, silver sixpences, threepences, groats and farthings.

I'm not sure where I read it, but I think £1 in Tudor money is equal to about £300 in 2004.

Anonymous said...

I think it was still pounds and pence, but with added shillings and i think it was 12d (pence) to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound and 240d to a pound.

Anonymous said...

Can assure you it was 12 pennies or "pence" (d) to one shilling (s) and 20 shillings to the Pound -- thus 240 pence to the Pound.
The penny was itself divisible by 2 (half-pennies) or by 4 (farthings)

2 shillings were known a Florin

2 shillings and 6 pence was known as Half-a-Crown, and,understandably, 5 shillings made a Crown.

One Pound plus one shilling made a Guinea.

Non-PhD Historian